Nawaki Senju and the Gift of Yang
by Isaac A. Drake
Summary: With the power to survive an ambush by Iwa ninja, Nawaki Senju sets forth on a path to achieve his dream. Or at least survive the Second Shinobi World War. Survival first, as his sensei Orochimaru might say.
1. Let Slip the Dogs of War

Author's Note:

I've been practicing writing through fanfiction for years, and I've never actually finished one of my stories. And I'm sorry about that. I've still got Secret Fire moving though so don't worry about that. But I figured I'd go "back to the basics" so to speak for a second active story. I cut my teeth on fanfiction writing Naruto fanfiction back when I was in middle and then high school. So now that Naruto is nominally over (Boruto...counts as...eh) I figured I might want to take a shot at my old stomping ground with something that is as far as I can tell completely unique.

I'd like to dedicate this story to my old beta Mackiestingray whose feedback over the years when I was younger helped me develop as a writer even though I never finished any of the stories we were working on.

Canon note- The Naruto canon timeline before the 3rd Shinobi World War is a mess so I am going to take a lot of liberties with time and ages, but those will be at least somewhat explained in the story.

Chapter 1: Let Slip the Dogs of War

It was supposed to be a quick skirmish to help defend an allied village, Kusagakure, from some low level ninja, Team Orochimaru had not anticipated running into the Iwagakure Explosion Corps.

As Nawaki felt a strange texture permeate his chakra as he released a Water Encampment Wall to protect himself from the mine he decided not to question it, as his defensive jutsu had been stronger than normal and it had likely saved his life.

The young genin flew backwards through the air with his clothing smoldering, straight into the arms of one of his teammates.

"Damnit Nawaki, don't just charge ahead like an idiot!" Katsumi Kurama chided his exuberant teammate as he let him down back onto the ground.

The Senju heir groaned in acknowledgement as he looked up at the taller boy. Katsumi was much heavier built than Nawaki and his dark auburn hair was tied back by his forehead protector in a ponytail.

He turned to face the unknown opponents, "Well Nawaki, let's see who set that trap, yeah?" He fell into a defensive taijutsu stance as their third teammate landed nearby.

"They're Iwa-nin I think," Shiori Uchiha spoke, her single tomoe Sharingan spinning, "I think this mission was either a betrayal by Kusa or they were pretending to be bandits to draw a ninja team out into an ambush."

Their sensei formed quickly out of the ground, releasing his headhunter jutsu, "Likely the second Shiori-kun. Good analysis, however. I also believe this is the Explosion Corps so leave this to me, you will all primarily be support. Shiori intercept any attackers that get past me with your katon jutsu and weapons. Nawaki you are long range elemental jutsu support. Katsumi you are the least suited to long range so use what few ranged genjutsu you have and strike with your melee genjutsu only at distracted or restrained opponents. Understood?"

The three young genin nodded at their sensei.

"Good. Hajime!" With that Orochimaru melted back into the earth and a few seconds later a mix of poison gas and explosions flared up fifty meters further into the tree line.

With her Sharingan Shiori saw the first Iwa-nin to break through their sensei's combat zone and flung a full brace of shurikan.

The bulky enemy deflected every single shurikan, but it was just a distraction for her teammates to have an opening. A quick Water Bullet jutsu form Nawaki hit the ninja from his exposed flank and blasted him straight into Katsumi's fist as he replaced himself with one of Shiori's shurikan from earlier.

The touch-based genjutsu of the Kurama clan-member put the enemy ninja straight into a coma that would be impossible to awaken from without outside interference for a day or so.

Quickly they fell back into a defensive formation as more explosions rocked the forest and they heard the enraged hissing of a snake summons.

"So uh...how many do you think there are?" Nawaki gently questioned his teammates as they held position listening to the sounds of combat rage in the distance.

Shoiri frowned as she scanned the tree line for any sign of nearing movement, unfortunately at her one tomoe stage her Sharingan all she could do was vaguely see chakra and speed up her sense of perception slightly.

"I'm not sure, Nawaki. Orochimaru-sensei could have taken out any number of them by now. And we don't know how many there were to begin with."

"Pfft...well we know it's at least one less now," Katsumi joked dryly as they kept alert.

"Ow! What was that for?" He yelled as Shiori shifted her foot to jam it down on his toe through his combat sandles.

"This is no time for jokes. This was supposed to be a C-rank mission and almost all Iwa ninja that use Explosion Release like that mine that almost killed Nawaki are high chuunin level. We're in way over our heads. And this kind of ambush could be considered a declaration of war!"

The young Uchiha brushed a loose strand of hair back into place under her forehead protector and continued scanning for foes while her teammates digested her words.

"Incoming chakra source, three o'clock!"

Nawaki nodded and began flying through handseals, finishing with Dragon and expelled a massive amount of water from his mouth with a cry of, "Suiton: Snake's Mouth!"

Luckily the lone alpine forest which stood on the border between the Lands of Grass and Earth where the plains turned to the foothills of the Land of Stone's mountains had enough moisture this late in the evening that he could supplement his natural water source, the water quickly shaped into a serpent's head and slammed past tree branches and towards the incoming enemy.

"Ha!" The enemy cried out as he dodged and came into view, "Strong attack for a genin but still just a genin!" The enemy stood on the tree branch closest to the clearing and wore a chuunin flak jacket and an Iwagakure headband. He cracked his knuckles and they began glowing with chakra.

"So you dodged some of our landmines but can you dodge my explosive fi...huh?"

The enemy ninja was confused as Nawaki formed a Ram seal.

"Release!" The water technique explosively broke its cohesion and swamped the entire region of forest in water forcing the Rock ninja to leap up higher in the tree.

"You brat! What was the point of tha-shit!"

Orochimaru had taught his team to keep talking to a minimum during fights against superior opponents. Talking was for psychological warfare only. To that regard Shiori had quickly launched as many shurikan as she could at the enemy to force him off balance, and used ninja wire to have the windmilling blades return for a second strike from strange and oblique angles.

The chunin was put onto a mild defensive much to his annoyance. Kunai out he blocked a dozen shurikan before growling in annoyance and turning to punch the tree he was on with chakra, causing a massive explosion which covered his position with a smokescreen of wood pulp and shrapnel to throw the shurikan off course.

"He used a replacement! I can't see where!" Shiori cried out as the three genin quickly searched around.

It was Katsumi who came to the correct conclusion, "Jump!"

The other two genin reacted instantly and took to the air as the Rock ninja burst out of the ground with his explosive fist thrust upwards.

Now the genin team was scattered and out of formation, but also had the enemy trapped between them. A fundamental aspect of the three man genin team was the idea that a well trained genin team could take out most chunin in straight combat with the use of teamwork and misdirection.

And while a member of the Iwagakure Explosion Corps wasn't a normal chunin neither was this a normal team of genin. While they had only been training under Orochimaru for a month or so he was one of the strongest members of Konoha's jonin and a member of the Sandaime Hokage's own trained team. Not to mention that all three were members of powerful and prestigious clans.

Nawaki was a Senju, and the grandson of the Shodaime Hokage who had founded the ninja village. He specialized in mid to long range elemental ninjutsu and had a relatively large chakra reserve from his Uzumaki grandmother to back it up. He had mostly water jutsu like his great uncle the Nidaime Hokage, but also had a few surprises under his belt to exploit that.

Katsumi was a member of the Kurama clan, a family of genjutsu specialists who also had an infrequently appearing kekkei genkai, which he did not possess. In fact he barely possessed his family's skill in most genjutsu, however he had a strange proclivity towards touch based genjutsu and thus focused on those and a taijutsu style based upon causing distracting pain to an enemy to have them not notice the activation of his touch based genjutsu.

And finally Shiori was a member of the Uchiha clan. Descendants of the traitorous Madara Uchiha who had helped Hashirama Senju found the village and the police force of Konoha. They also possessed the powerful dojutsu, the Sharingan, which had multiple stages of maturity of which Shiori only had access to the first. Her clan also focused on katon style ninjutsu and shurikanjutsu exploiting the predictive skills of their kekkei genkai.

All of this said, a chunin's speed could often make the difference if there was not enough misdirection and teamwork between the genin in such a battle.

And Tatsuki of the Explosion Corp had to be fast to make and escape his close range explosions.

Katsumi was not prepared when the ninja suddenly burst towards him in a cloud of dust with a body flicker technique, but he was not caught so off guard that he took a direct hit.

The area explosion from the explosive fist however caught him completely by surprise. Rocky shrapnel burst in all directions and skewered and shattered his leg.

"Ah!"

"Katsumi!" Both of his teammates cried in fear and rage.

"Grr...that's it! I'm done with you Rock guy!" Nawaki screamed as he ran through handseals and gathered chakra, "Shiori cover me!"

She nodded and flung another brace of wire controlled shurikan out to lock down their foe.

And indeed the chunin was hard pressed to defend from the barrage all in the few seconds he had before Nawaki finished his jutsu.

As he finished gathering chakra and landed on his dragon seal once more the crystal on the necklace around his neck began to glow and he sensed something extra get added into his chakra once more, "Raiton: Electromagnetic Murder!"

Using the puddles and pools of water from his earlier jutsu the lightning chakra jumped from pool to pool locking down the enemy's movements and eventually striking him directly and running tens of thousands of volts through him, frying him to a crisp.

Nawaki let out gasps of breath at how much chakra he had put into the technique as Shiori ran over to check on Katsumi.

She cursed under her breath, "Nawaki we need to retreat! Katsumi can't walk on this!"

With a grunt he moved over to begin helping them move back as the explosions in the distance began to quiet.

Three days later they had returned to Konoha with their sensei and gotten Katsumi into the personal care of Nawaki's older sister and Orochimaru's former teammate, Tsunade Senju.

Two days after that the official declaration of war between Konoha and Iwa was sent out.

A day after that Orochimaru was sent back to Kusagakure by himself to lead that front of the war, while Jiraiya headed off to make sure that Amegakure did not side with Iwa, nor did Iwa break through that smaller nation to attack the Land of Fire.

Team Orochimaru would remain in Konoha training with their families until Katsumi's mangled leg was fully healed.

Shiori would spend her days training in the Uchiha compound to hopefully evolve her Sharingan, and at the very least gain better control of her fire release techniques.

Nawaki on the other hand was a member of the Senju clan, which consisted only of himself and his sister at the moment. And of course their grandmother by marriage into the clan, Mito Uzumaki.

And Mito had decided that since there was no Senju around to teach Nawaki the techniques of Hashirama and Tobirama, she would teach him the ways of the Uzumaki.


	2. Blood is Thicker Than Chakra Water

Chapter 2: Blood is Thicker Than Chakra Infused Water

Mito Uzumaki was well over fifty years old at this point and did not look old enough to have adult children, let alone grandchildren.

The only indications of age were her somewhat matronly curves and some minor crow's feet around her eyes. Her hair was still a healthy dark red and her eyes still shone with vigor.

She also still packed almost as much of a punch as her granddaughter, as Nawaki had just found out.

"Ow wow ow! I thought this was a spar, Grandma!"

One hand on her hip, the other pointed at him accusingly, "You need to take this seriously you brat! You almost died on your last mission before the fighting even started if what little Saru told me about your mission report was true!"

Nawaki cringed at the accusation, it was true.

"I am not burying you like I did your parents. I am not losing another child of mine!"

The preteen froze at this. Mito had basically raised him, his parents had died when he was a toddler and Tsunade had just been starting as an active ninja. He thought of her as a mother more than a grandmother at this point.

And she was staring down at him with angry tears in her eyes.

She was afraid of losing him.

He sighed, "I'm sorry, Grandma. Please teach me to do better."

"Hmmph, that's more like it. Now let's get down to business. Your specialty is more like your uncle's right? You throw a bunch of water around and then electrocute them?"

Nawaki rubbed the back of his head a little embarrassed, "Well when you put it that way..."

Mito stomped her foot down onto the ground, "Unrefined! Wasteful! You are using your Uzumaki chakra reserves as a crutch! Because I can't get you up to par in fuinjutsu in the next month we'll instead focus on getting your taijutsu up to snuff and refining your wasteful ninjutsu style."

Nawaki gulped, "Uh okay. S-sure! Yeah thanks Grandma Mito!"

As he stood up he noticed his grandmother unsealing some supplies.

"Alright first I know you only picked up those Raiton jutsu to supplement your Suiton. So we're going to test you actual elemental affinity. We know it's going to be Suiton primary but there could be a surprise in there as a secondary. Especially with your Senju blood making your elemental skills run amok."

Nawaki thought back to the strange super-charging of a few of his elemental skills in his last fight.

"Yeah I've actually noticed some weird stuff with that lately."

"I'm not surprised. As you mature so will your chakra network and affinities. We've never been able to fully figure out what the Senju bloodline does, just that it functions with elemental affinities. It isn't the Mokuton however, as no one other than Hashirama has ever developed it, whereas every Senju has had some strange affinity interactions. Even Tsunade's chakra control and natural skill in medical ninjutsu is interesting, though it makes it suspect whether it's about the elemental natures of chakra or not. Though it's possible she just inherited Uzumaki healing chakra from my side of the family instead."

That stumped Nawaki, "Uzumaki what now?"

Mito nodded, "Yes the Uzumaki have a few different brands of skills and traits throughout the clan. The first is our potent chakra. Our reserves are large and our health and vigor are supercharged by it. In some the vigor of our chakra goes a step further and it can be used to heal those who it is transferred to. Our other skill is a natural skill for the sealing arts. It appears our brains are just wired for it and our chakra flows into seals more smoothly. In some allowing us to manifest our chakra as weapons with sealing properties. Chains, nets, wires, and such are most common, usually things with capture aspects. My father, the founder of Uzushiogakure can form a powerful kurisarigama however. Sealing with the chain and eating chakra with the blade."

Nawaki's jaw dropped at that.

"Wow, Grandma! That is so cool! Could you teach me that?"

In response she flicked out her hand, casually unsealing a bo staff in a blink of an eye and bopping him on the head with it lightly.

"No. You would need to train in sealing first and I am fairly certain your Senju chakra is more dominant."

"Aww, anyways what was that other stuff you took out?"

"You mean before I was rudely interrupted by an inquisitive little brat?" She didn't let Nawaki respond and he thought he was better off not responding anyways, "It's chakra paper. We're going to test you for your official affinities. You seemed to pick up water and lightning very easily and are very flexible with what you can do with them. So I am curious about how your bloodline is working with you."

She handed him a piece of paper, "Just channel some chakra through it."

Nawaki nodded and did so, concentrating with the paper between his fingers.

It got soaked, split in a limp fashion due to being wet, and then a second later both pieces attempted to crinkle up but just ended up folding into each other in a moist mess.

The old woman's head tilted to the side. "Huh...three. And you've never even attempted wind release before. Which makes sense as while you sensei can use it his primary affinity is Doton and the only other wind users are Sakumo Hatake and myself."

"So you can help teach me wind, Grandma?" Nawaki was grinning ear to ear.

"Indeed. We will focus on teaching you to refine your water techniques and learn some wind ones for ninjutsu. And then we will also get yourself suited to defend yourself better in close quarters. Perhaps some kenjutsu so you can someday wield the Sword of the Thunder God."

Stars almost literally formed in Nawaki's eyes, "Oh wow really? That would be amazing! It would take my combination jutsu up to a whole new level!"

Mito smiled at her exuberant grandson, "Indeed. But it will take a while for me to find an instructor for you. Thus the first week or two of melee combat will be taijutsu. I will be teaching you the Uzumaki style of taijutsu as it is made with creating openings for mid-range ninjutsu use in mind. Of course it also is made with the goal of creating openings to use fuinjutsu as well, but those are mostly higher levels of the form and hopefully you will be back and able to learn some sealing from me long before you reach those techniques."

"Alright! Let's get started! What first, Grandma?"

"Water walking."

Nawaki faceplanted straight into the ground.

A few days later Shiori Uchiha sighed to release some tension she had been holding as she entered the barbecue joint where she was meeting her teammate to catch up.

Katsumi was still stuck in the hospital and a wheelchair, but they had visited him the day before yesterday so she didn't feel too bad meeting up without him.

Nawaki raised an eyebrow as she slumped into the seat across from him in the booth in a huff.

"What's got you so pissed?"

"They initiated the wartime Ninja Academy procedures. Two of my cousins, Fugaku and Mikoto have now graduated. They're eight!"

The young man let out a low whistle, "Damn I didn't realize they were going to start doing that so quickly. We declared war what...a week ago? I thought they'd at least wait until we sustained losses."

Shiori worried at her lip with her teeth a bit, "Well they're not going on missions yet. They're just being assigned to Chunin and Jonin leaders for training to be combat ready right now. But it's just a matter of time. Fugaku's a bit of a jerk, but he's the heir of the clan and Mikoto is a sweet girl. I don't want anything to happen to them."

The two preteens lapsed into silence for a few moments before the waiter arrived and they ordered their food. Both of them were from prestigious clans and didn't so much as glance at the prices.

"I think it's because there's been movement on the border with Suna, the Land of Rivers, and within Ame. This could be another Great War."

Shiori set down her complementary water she had been sipping on.

"That...would explain things. Including the brutal training my clan has been putting me through. My mother said that being on Orochimaru-sensei's team meant I had to live up to the legacy of the greatest student of the Hokage, but this information would make more sense. I've been run ragged perfecting and learning new katon jutsu."

Nawaki nodded along with her story and as she finished she paused slightly to smirk.

"And I unlocked this." She looked Nawaki right in the eye and activated her Sharingan, showing a second tomoe spinning in her left eye now.

"Ah! That's great! Have you seen any specific improvements?"

"My perception speed is even more keen and I can tell the nature and sometimes form a jutsu will take while my opponent is going through hand signs and molding the chakra! What have you been working on?"

Nawaki puffed out his chest a little arrogantly and could not resist some minor boasting.

"My grandmother has been teaching me the Uzumaki taijutsu style, the Maelstrom Style! And we've been adding Futon techniques to my ninjutsu style!"

That brought a huge grin to Shiori's face, "We need to meet up to do more sparring and teamwork training then! Imagine the combination jutsu we can pull off with you adding wind to my fire attacks!"

An excited nod came from her teammate, "Exactly what I was thinking! And once Katsumi has recovered I'm sure we can come up with new ways to funnel enemies into his range! And in a few days my great uncle's kenjutsu student, Koharu, is going to start working with me on learning that sword style!"

"Oh? The same sword style as Tobirama-sama? Does that mean you'll inherit the Sword of the Thunder God?"

"Oh man I really hope so. That would be so badass! I would definitely become Hokage if I could master my three affinities and that sword!"

Shiori rolled her still scarlet red eyes dramatically, "Always on the Hokage kick aren't you? You know this isn't a dynastic village, Nawaki?"

Now she put a teasing smirk onto her face, "Maybe the next Hokage will be an Uchiha? It would be about time!"

The boy rubbed the back of his head and blushed, "Well not that it's impossible. I just really want to live up to my family legacy and protect what they worked and sacrificed to build!"

She hadn't been expecting a mature answer from the boy, but he did have occasional depth that shone past his typically rash and bold nature. After the shock past she let a sincere smile show on her face.

"That's probably the best answer you've given to your motivations for becoming Hokage you know? Even Orochimaru-sensei would be impressed."

His blush deepened, "Aw shucks, Shiori! Was that a complement?"

She flicked a salt packet into his face, "Don't get cocky and ruin the moment."

Soon their food arrived and they eagerly devoured the protein, to help their growing high energy using bodies develop. But also because it was delicious.


	3. The Drums of War

Author's Note: This bug bit me hard guys, guess getting back to my basics was really really fruitful.

Anyways having Fugaku and Mikoto be wartime young promotes to genin was the only way I could make Nawaki's ninja id being 1 before Mikoto's make sense with him dying during or before the 2nd war. Obviously the 3rd war is where Fugaku truly gets to shine, but for now he's going to be a horrifyingly young child soldier, like his son. I'm going to almost be entirely focusing on Nawaki though, unless they're interacting with him side characters will get throwaway updates as things go along.

Sidenote- I hate using ocs under normal circumstances, but I've always felt that in pre or post-canon situations where there are giant blank spaces not filled in by pre-existing characters it is necessary. Nawaki doesn't have a canon team, Orochimaru as a sensei is only implied in the anime, we only have a few canon characters from this time period (and be ready for me to abuse the few we do have as we go further here) so I gotta do what I gotta do.

Chapter 3: The Drums of War

Hiruzan Sarutobi took a long draft of his pipe and after holding a few seconds exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"War...war never changes," his deep sigh produced more smoke.

The sheer destruction of the previous shinobi war had left the entire continent sure that never again would more than two of the great nations war at once.

A mere twenty years later the Sandaime Hokage was seeing that theory proved wrong.

Danzo's ROOT spies had corroborating reports indicating that Suna was hungrily eyeing the friction between Iwa and Konoha over the border nations between them, waiting for a chance to strike at the fertile Land of Rivers and possibly steal territory from the Land of Fire itself as well.

"Damn Onoki...what were you thinking you fool? Striking into Kusa like that..."

He was very troubled that the Explosion Corps of all groups had been involved and had kept itself undercover until a team from the Leaf had arrived.

They had obviously planned on drawing Leaf out and having there be no survivors so that they could slowly bleed the ANBU teams that would follow the loss of a genin team under normal circumstances.

However Orochimaru had been leading the team, Hiruzen's student had eradicated the entire squad with the exception of one captured member who had been subdued by his genin.

The Hokage had found this quite impressive, though the report of Nawaki nearly dying to a landmine before the battle even started was less impressive.

The boy's brashness worried him at times.

Just as his musings turned to the heir of his sensei's clan the team was led in to his office by one of his aids.

He said nothing and just watched, letting the three genin sweat a little. A call to meet the Hokage himself in his own personal office was not an every day occurrence for genin.

"Team Orochimaru," he finally began after a few more moments of silence, "You have had a month and a half out of the field. Two of you have spent the entire time training, and Kurama-san has completed his two weeks of physical therapy, and something tells me he got some light training under his belt at that time contrary to Tsunade's wishes."

Katsumi had the dignity to blush with a little shame.

The Hokage continued, "You will all be rejoining your sensei, who is the division leader of our forces reinforcing Kusagakure against Iwa. The staging grounds will be Hozuki Castle and you will be leaving with a group of genin and chunin squads. Unfortunately this also includes a few of the freshly promoted wartime genin squads. Your cousins included, Uchiha-san."

Shiori's eyes widened in surprise.

"As the oldest and most senior genin...and I realize how unfortunate that is, I will expect you three to set a good example for your juniors and help support them. The primary function of the newly promoted genin is officially to be support and messenger roles but war is unpredictable, and messengers are often targeted."

The aging Hokage sighed, "In truth I see as much potential in your team as I did in my own team. I am placing a lot upon your shoulders, but I hope you three can be a shining light of the Will of Fire for your generation to inspire your peers to greatness in this unfortunate war. That is why I called you here today, to tell you in person about the hopes I am placing upon you, and that I believe you can live up to them."

That heavy proclamation was still laying upon the shoulders of the three preteens as they gathered the next day to begin deployment out to the Grass Front.

Mito and Tsunade were both there, with the former presenting her grandson with the final fruits of his month and a half of training.

"Koharu has told me that you are proficient in your great-uncle's kenjutsu style now, enough to wield a real blade in combat at least. So allow me to present to you the blade you will use until you have become a jonin and proven worthy of the Sword of the Thunder God."

She handed him a sheathed jian, one of the few types of straight swords in the Elemental Nations, with a sea green tassel hanging off the pommel. The hilt was bronze with a guard shaped similarly to the Sword of the Thunder God's vajra guard, which had been shaped in turn after half of the Senju clan symbol.

As he unsheathed it he saw it was a finely tempered blade a small amount over two feet in length. The blade was engraved with a raging storm, to include motifs of all of his elements he presumed.

Reverently resheathing it Nawaki looked up at his grandmother, "Thank you, Grandma Mito. I really...I promise I will return. Stronger than ever! And I'll be worthy of both of my families."

Mito embraced him with tears in both of their eyes as his teammates respectfully averted their gazes.

They had both had equally tearful good-byes that morning.

Well Shiori's mother had been crying at least. Her father was already deployed to the River border with Sakumo Hatake and a few ANBU squads in case Suna decided to make a move.

As Mito moved aside Tsunade took her grandmother's place hugging her younger brother.

"I love you, you little brat. I won't be here in Konoha much longer either, Sensei is just waiting to see where the bulk of the fighting breaks out to send me there. So I'm not sure if I'll be joining you in Kusa or not, but when you get there tell my old teammate that you're in his hands and if he lets anything happen to you his ass is mine!"

A large bead of sweat rolled down the side of Nawaki's face at that final declaration, his big sis had let some killing intent leak out there and she could be scary when angry.

"I love you too, sis! And don't worry! I can't be Hokage if I kick the bucket, and you gave me my good luck charm from grandpa!" At this he held up the crystal of the Shodai's necklace, "I felt something from it in my last fight. I think it makes my chakra stronger. I think you saved me with it, sis."

Tsunade's face moved from scared to awed to relieved rapidly, "I'm glad it helped you, I'm not sure what I would do without you, Nawaki. Now go out there and make us proud!"

Unfortunately for this platoon they were also convoyed with supplies being sent to the Kusa operations base that could not be stored in sealing scrolls. Livestock primarily, but also messenger birds, sealing scrolls themselves, and explosive tags in bulk.

Thus the convoy was made up mostly of genin and chunin leading those squads with one jonin overseeing the entire ordeal. Most other jonin and ANBU had been sent ahead at speed to make sure the war front was solidly defended and defined so that the supply lines could reach them effectively.

The jonin was a queer white haired man named Hiruko who was in Nawaki's words, "A weird mix between a freak and a bore."

"Bore is such a refined word for you, Nawaki. Where did you hear it? Was it in a movie? A comic?"

The boy grumbled at his female teammate's teasing. Mostly because it had indeed been in a movie where he picked up the phrase.

"I definitely remember hearing it from the villain in the latest Jackie Chun film."

The Senju heir turned to his other teammate and glared whispering, "Traitor," under his breath.

But he pressed forward, "I just think it's weird how all he can talk about is Orochimaru and the other members of his old team and keeps prodding us on our bloodlines and related skills."

The jonin did certainly seem to have an unhealthy fascination in the Sharingan and the thought that perhaps the Mokuton was a hidden kekkei genkai for the Senju line.

"Yeah I'll admit his questions about our Fantastic Realism mutation were all super creepy."

"Seconded on the Sharingan questions. He kept asking me about what situations cause it to evolve."

Yes, all of Team Orochimaru were thoroughly creeped out by Hiruko.

A few times on the five day journey Shiori had managed to get her cousin Mikoto, a recent war time early academy graduate, to join them, though she had no such luck convincing her other cousin Fugaku to do so.

Mikoto was a sweet, if overly focused, girl of eight, and apparently was quite skilled with her clan's signature fire jutsu already. Though the only other skill to speak of that she had was a talent with ninja wires and the Academy Three jutsu.

Shiori needn't voice her concerns, her two male teammates could tell every time the girl left their campfire after dinner that she was tremendously scared for her young cousins in the coming war.

While they were certainly child soldiers still, the genin of Team Orochimaru felt that at least they were fully trained child soldiers.

Eventually, after three days through the forests of the Land of Fire and a further two through the grasslands of the Land of Grass the terrain began to change. And just as a canyon began to form, denoting the beginning of another approach to the foothills of the Land of Earth, a large castle rose in the distance on one of the canyon cliffsides.

"There it is. Home sweet home for who knows how long."

"The Blood Prison."


End file.
